Wow… some real surprises here.
And a few of the names that got my votes WON!
Best Director: David Cronenberg, “A History of Violence”
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Capote”
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line”
Best Supporting Actor: Mickey Rourke, “Sin City”
Best Supporting Actress: Maria Bello, “A History of Violence”
Best Original Screenplay: “Good Night and Good Luck,” George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Brokeback Mountain,” Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, based on L. Annie Proulx’ short story
Best Cinematography: “Sin City,” Robert Rodriguez
Best Editing: “Sin City,” Robert Rodriguez
Best Score: “Brokeback Mountain,” Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Documentary: “Grizzly Man”
Best Foreign-Language Film: “Downfall” (Germany)
Best Animated Feature: “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”
Breakthrough Filmmaker: Paul Haggis, “Crash”
Breakthrough Performance: Owen Kline, “The Squid and the Whale”
Great link. I remember how disturbed, and ultimately afraid, I felt when I first read Flannery O’Conner as a Freshman in college. I had come from a strict fundamentist background, and there was something in her writing that was forcing my fears to the surface. That’s how I think about horror now — as the genre of non-denial. To be scared, truly scared, is to come to terms with what you really believe, and with who you really want to become in this world.
I’d love to make a short horror film out “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. That statement by the misfit at the end is legendary.
“King Lear” is, to me, a very frightening play – so are “Macbeth” and “Hamlet.” Why? Because the horrors inside us are exposed.
O’Connor was a great writer, but I have to admit that I prefer her letters and essays to her fiction.
So many films have been lumped into the “horror” genre that the word has practically been robbed of its potency. Taken literally, horror is meant to invoke a very strong and painful feeling of fear, shock, or disgust, which is something a lot of modern filmmakers seem to understand very well. (I haven’t seen either Hostel or Wolf Creek, although some of my more adventurous friends have assured me that these two films fall under this category.)
This new approach horror is such a departure from the kinds of things I’ve long enjoyed that I’m reluctant to accept it right away, although I cannot deny its usefulness in some cases (which is why I may reject the idea of horror as a form of entertainment while embracing it as a serious intellectual and spiritual act).
Secondly, may I say that the idea Scott directing a Flannery O’Connor adaptation is incredibly exciting to me? I almost wet myself when I read that. (Whoops—there I go with the bathroom humor again.)
Glad you enjoyed it, Jeff.
Nate…
So many films have been lumped into the “horror” genre that the word has practically been robbed of its potency.
I tend to think this is because the genre is so impoverished that the truly scary films are those that transcend the genre. BTW, there’s a book called Horror: The 100 Best Books, and in it many successful horror writers name non-genre stuff as their favorite “horror book” (eg, Clive Barker nominates Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Dan Simmons nominates John Gardner Grendel). So…